The world is changing … and we must change with it. The world of Fantasy and Science-fiction Publishing has become lost … and we must find a better way. We want you to take this journey with us.
Dragon’s Bard is an ambitious new project created especially for you by Laura and me. Dragon’s Bard is a series of fantasy novels which we will present directly to you in serial form. Here is how it works…
For less than you would spend on two dates to the movies, you can own something unique. When you subscribe to Dragon’s Bard: Eventide you will receive:
- A new chapter each week! You can look forward to watching the story unfold each week as you receive a download file containing the edited and formatted text of a new chapter written exclusively for our subscribers.
- Private Updates and Insights: What are the challenges and rewards of writing a serialization of a novel? Gain insights into the process through special communiques from the authors via an exclusive ‘subscribers’ only website and forum.
- … And the signed & numbered limited-edition hardback publication of the book! When the book subscription is complete, you will receive your own hardback, limited-edition copy of the book — each one numbered and signed personally by the authors!
This subscription offering is the first of three separate subscriptions which will complete this series. We have prepaid and five-installment subscription plans for both United States and International subscribers. (The only difference between Domestic U.S. plans and International plans are the shipping costs of the book at the end of the subscription.)
Subscribers to this first book will have a priority opportunity to acquire positions in later book subscriptions in this series, thus insuring that when you subscribe now will be able to acquire the complete three-book set.
Order now … once the subscription is sold out this offer will be closed.
The first book, Eventide, will begin with one chapter per week over twenty-plus weeks beginning June 5th. Our plan is to have the finished hardback book in your hands by Christmas — making Eventide a unique holiday gift as well. This subscription is LIMITED … we have a cap on the number of books we can produce, sign and ship. This means that the book you receive at the end of the subscription will be highly collectible — a unique memento of our journey together.
In some ways this is a very old idea brought into a new medium. Charles Dickens wrote his books in a ‘serial’ format very much like this and, if he were alive today, I think this is how he might be writing again. So, we will ‘write like the Dickens’ and produce a unique gift for you. We think YOU should become our publisher and that we should right directly for YOU.
Join us for Eventide … and own a unique gift of fantasy.
I believe that the situation publishing is facing in new media today is highly analogous to the old ‘Studio System’ that existed in Hollywood from the 1920s until its abolition through anti-trust legislation in the 1950s. During this period of time, Movie Studios (like MGM, Paramount, Fox and the like) owned the entire production and distribution chain of films. They ‘owned’ contract players (much like professional athletes today) and would trade them like property. They also put directors under contract as well, insuring that they would only work for their ‘dream factory.’ Then, to top all this off, the studios also owned their own theater chains — controlling who distributed their movies. If you wanted to see Clarke Gable’s latest movie, then you could only find it at an MGM owned theater. Or, if you were an independent theater owner and you wanted the latest Clark Gable film (blockbuster) you were required to purchase an entire slate of lesser-quality MGM movies as well. When this secure channel of distribution was challenged, it seemed for a time as if movie studios were going the way of the dodo — but then studios wised up and realized that they weren’t in the business of making movies — they were in the entertainment business and that they needed to change with the times. The result is the current reality in Hollywood where studios provide financing and facilities services to independent production companies … and everyone is making money again. No studio owns Cameron’s Lightstorm production company — but both Cameron and the studio backing him made a killing on ‘Avatar.’
Big publishers find themselves in a similar position, I believe, to that of movie studios in the 1950s. Their classic and time honored distribution system is being challenged by new media. The old models aren’t working any more. I believe that publishers will also have to change in much the same way as studios did in the 1950s and 1960s.
To this end, Laura and I are establishing Scribe’s Forge Publishing. While we hope to teach what we have learned about the craft and art of Science-fiction and Fantasy writing, we are also hoping to develop it into an ebook/new media production house. Such places, I believe, will become filters for future readers in much the same way that traditional publishing filtered out the noise from the signal. I would like people to come to Scribe’s Forge Publishing looking for our latest published author (possibly like yourself) because we develop a reputation for publishing only quality works rather than anything that is just tossed up onto the internet. By becoming a focal point of quality, more readers will be drawn to our place first rather than random searching the web, and thus serving our authors with better revenues. At least that’s the model that I think the future holds for us all.
New media? Yes, please, I’d like to be a part of that frontier!
We’ve just posted the initial curriculum for both the level 1: Foundation seminars and the Level 2: Forge Workshops. These should give you an understanding of our basic approach to these instruction series and what we envision for these courses. We are not yet to the point of actually offering these seminars and workshops but we are interested in your feedback regarding their content.
If you have any suggestions as to what else might be included in these seminars and workshops, please feel free to post a comment here or on the forum.
Scribe’s Forge is the portal to Tracy and Laura Hickman’s Writing Seminars and Workshops in Speculative Fiction.
We’re just getting started so bare with us while we perform a little construction.
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This subscription offering is the first of three separate subscriptions which will complete this series. We have prepaid and five-installment subscription plans for both United States and International subscribers. (The only difference between Domestic U.S. plans and International plans are the shipping costs of the book at the end of the subscription.)
Themocracy